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Logan Thomas isn’t going to play this week in Minnesota. He got the second half of the preseason opener, so now, it’s Ryan Lindley’s turn to get the second half when he plays against the Vikings. That means Thomas’ impressive (and yes, I know it was against second/third-teamers of a bad Texans team) debut will simmer for now. Nevertheless, Thomas has gotten national praise for the way he played in his 11-12-113-1-0 outing, and Bruce Arians said he couldn’t be more pleased out that aspect.

“I really enjoy all the guys who said he stunk coming out and should have been a tight end, they’re eating a lot of crow this week, so that’s fun,” Arians said with a smile.

Arians was having some fun himself today. He also was talking about third-round pick John Brown, and how in the aftermath of success with such a player there are always people from other teams claiming they had just been about to pick him when the Cardinals did so. Arians clearly isn’t a believer. He said he’s heard from guys on “three or four” teams that were about to choose Brown in the draft.

“They’re all lyin’,” Arians said.

— Offensive linemen Max Starks and Anthony Steen return to practice today. The other injured players remain sidelined. It does not look like guard Jonathan Cooper (toe) is going to make it back to playing Saturday. Receivers Ted Ginn (knee) and Michael Floyd (groin) could be game-day decisions. Linebacker John Abraham remains absent.

— QB Carson Palmer, on dealing with the mind of defensive coordinator Todd Bowles in camp: “We have seen every single coverage there is,” Palmer said. “There’s a couple we couldn’t identify. It’s like he’s making some stuff up just to try and see how it goes.”

— Arians said he has no set snap count for how much the starters will play Saturday. “If it is as good as last week, it’ll probably be the same,” Arians said. “If it’s not it’ll probably be a little longer.”

— Jay Feely will kick in Minnesota. Arians said it was undecided how the kicking will go in the next game at home against Cincinnati, but he does want to see Feely kick off indoors.

— Finally, Arians talked about how he likes to go through the locker room and interact with his players. Some coaches do not like to do that. Other locker rooms will have players who don’t like coaches coming through, but Arians said those locker rooms usually are host losing teams.

“I was taught a long time ago, coach ’em hard and hug ’em later,” Arians said. “That’s the hugging part. Rip a guy’s ass out there and go in, (tell them) it’s just football, nothing personal. ‘Your football stinks, you’re a pretty good guy.’ You want to make sure they know that. You ask them to do a lot of things and you get a lot of feedback when you go through there.”

D,
There is a bright side to all this, Watford getting much needed work, Fanaika (sp) on the rightside seems to be entrenched as the starter, My gut says Cooper will come around (he is just to talented not to!) in the end I think the Cardinals get 3 very good Guards, all starter quality. Hopefully it works itself out prior to the start of the regular season, so Coaches can get an O-line out their that will remain the same 5 week in, week out, let them gel, and work as 1 unit before long.

I love it when people ask questions and then demand how “good” the answers have to be.

He’s hurt right now. I thought he held up fine in the opener, other than the one sack to Watt. My gut feeling is he’ll be fine. Will he be a Pro Bowler? Not this year I wouldn’t think. But we’ve had about three weeks of camp. I’m not ready to toss aside the guy yet.

Remember when the Cardinals ruined Jake Delhomme’s career? That little midget Steve Smith did it to him on the sidelines later that sent him packing his bags . I like you as a man, just not a Quarterback. So funny. I guess we will see Coach Smith one day.

I swear I thought BA was the shy, quite type when he was hired!! I just never heard any straight toward tell them like it is awesome words of wisdom out of him when he was interim head coach for the Colts! Maybe I just didn’t pay attention to the Colts press conferences, or could have been the circumstances, and the seriousness of Pagano’s (sp) illness, has he always been the “tell it like it is””pull no punches” type with the media?? Whichever it is, don’t change a thing coach!! Cardinals fans have to love it, huge improvement over Whiz and his standard, dry, same repined just insert different player name and never use the same words to say the exact same thing, day in, and day out. And I am a Whiz fan, all the respect in the world for the Guy, I just dreaded the press conference’s!
Anyone see where the Texans signed former Cardinal RB William Powell, as well as Ronnie Brown today, they also cut recently signed RB Andre Brown ttoday, I thought they just signed him very recently, if so they didn’t give him much of a look, I thought he would have been a solid #2 for them, he did fair for the Giants last year, right around 500 yards and a handful of TD’s (not 100% sure on the numbers, I’am no Giants fan, or any NFC Least fan for that matter!! Goes back to my St Louis Cardinal fan days!, but a good buddy of mine is a Giants FREAK, to the point he had his Harley custom painted. Giants mural! So he keeps everyone informed of all thing Giants, whether we want to hear it or not!) He is very injury prone, except he has played a lot more these last 2 years, may have overcome the injury bug, but I doubt it!

Asking D Urban not to give Vanilla answers is like asking a Cat not to Meow to his master when the cat is hungry. Not going to happen. Darren does his best with his thoughts but is tied to the hand that feeds. Just appreciate. Don’t hate. Learned that long ago.

The kid may have been inconsistent in camp/practice but you can’t argue with his ball placement during that game. I really don’t see how the play of the Texans mattered as much as Mr. Thomas’ ball placement. He was pressured a few times and still put the ball where it needed to be consistently through multiple drives.

If accuracy or mechanics is our main concern with Thomas, I think this game, even if it’s his best this year, is indicative of how productive he could be in the future. The potential appears to be there.

That makes me so damn happy as a fan. To have a quarterback that may be the face of our franchise in a few years that we actually drafted sounds sublime. I’m getting ahead of myself here, it’s just one game, but the potential is tantalizing! I’m all for keeping Mr. Palmer here as long as his body will allow, he will be excellent this year behind the rebuilt line, but Thomas could be OUR guy. Ya know?

I think that the best coaches strike a balance between being tough on the performance but kind to the players. This is true in any leadership position. Very few possess the skills to be firm, encouraging yet compassionate. Arians has those characteristics and that’s what makes him successful. Corporate managers and teachers could learn a lot by his leadership style. Maybe they should be required to attend practices!

I have been very disappointed in the decisions Stephan Taylor is making running the ball. He has decent power, but no speed. He made terrible choices bouncing outside trying to run around the edge with his lack of speed. If Taylor can learn to run inside the tackles he will be more valuable to the team. Jonathan Dwyer is bigger and faster and can run inside with power or bounce outside and get to the edge easily.

I am looking to see Taylor eliminate mental errors and focus on what he can do, and not try to pretend he is a scat back. If not, he’s going to be sitting on the bench watching Dwyer and Ellington keep defenses on their heels.

Our offense needs to be our defense this year. Ball control is going to determine if we make the playoffs or not.

I think it’s natural to be concerned about Cooper, he was a top ten pick and a player we choose to solidify our line and be that all-pro left guard for the next decade. If he can’t become that player and is just a serviceable guard then it would have to be considered a disappointment. However, it is still early in his recovery and his career to feel like if it isn’t happening right now then it’s never going to happen. In the meantime Watford gets to improve with his extended reps and gametime and it only strengthens our team in the long run. If Watford becomes the better player and beats Cooper out then that is just a byproduct of competition.

One could interpret the Wally Pipp commentary as though Cooper might be doggin’ it. I have known the Pipp story for a long time; it’s part of baseball lore. As far as I can tell Coop simply needs time to really gain confidence before all the criticism rings out. He needs both mental and physical confidence…and the declarations to the press from BA are not helping.

Even HC’s need to be held accountable for their performance…BA is fantastic in most areas except some blurted comments to the press that he thinks will create motivation and sound cute.

I have deduced that in these instances, when BA comments to the media regarding an injury issue, he thinks it will make a player try harder… Wally Pipp had a hangover and needed a couple aspirin….Cooper had a serious leg break.

Additionally, this is Coop’s rookie year; and needs as much coaching up and practice… Incidentally, Wally Pipp went on to have a fantastic career – no one tells that part of the story…. Be well Cards Fans…

Like most of you (maybe, all of you) I had not heard of John Brown before we drafted him. I remember being disappointed that we would waste a third round pick on someone we could either take in the sixth or seventh round or probably try and sign as an undrafted player. Since then he has been revealed as a very good player and I have even greater respect than before for our scouts and for Keim for finding and selecting him. I had been wondering if Brown was on other teams’ radar too and how close we were to losing him. I still don’t really know. Some teams are perhaps saying so but BA says it’s not true. Not that you can always believe BA. I would like to know what other teams would have taken him if we had selected another player with that pick and I would like to know who we would have taken had Brown been off the board already. We will never know. It’s too bad they don’t tape all that goes on inside each team’s room during the draft so that we could watch it weeks, months or years later. To listen to the various strategies and possible tradings up or down and to see how close we came to getting or losing a very key player or how we avoided a train wreck. It would be interesting to look back on it. I think they should even make a movie about it. They could call it, I don’t know, something simple like DRAFT DAY. Maybe get someone like Kevin Costner to star in it. Probably not gonna happen.

Geez…it’s a preseason game and, yes, we played against 2nd and 3rd teamers for the most part. Basically preseason is a glorified scrimmage in full dress and real time against someone other than your own guys; it’s a learning experience, time for evaluation in a game situation, doesn’t count, no big deal, nothing to freak out about or get too puffed up over.
Of more interest/concern to me is that our defense is ranked 21st (according to Twitter) That’s quite a cliff we apparently fell off!. As for Brown, I have to agree with BA, that the other teams who were going to take him “next” are liars and most people never heard of him. I’m always a little skeptical when I hear Keim and Arians “gushing” (sounds like they are trying a little to hard to sell something).
It’s too early to tell what this years team will look like in final form as there will be injuries before regular season. This week should be interesting on the road against another weak team and the game with the Chargers should be the most revealing. Let’s STAY HEALTHY and GET’R’DONE! GO CARDS!

Clsslssy
I think the defensive ranking (#21) actually came from an ESPN INSIDERS article, get this…they had the offense ranked even lower!! (Want to say #28 or some crap like that!!) Articles like these are why I don’t waste my time or money on these so called experts!!

Coop. + time = Pro Bowl
In my opinion the only variable here, is we just don’t know how much time will be needed for him to get his confidence back, and the rust off, but it will happen! (Someone take note of this post, because I will gladly stuff my face with some good old crow if he doesn’t eventually make the Pro Bowl)
: )

@br in nc
At last we have an accord! LOL! I don’t put much stock in their talking hairdos either however it just seems to be another example of how little respect the Cards seem to get on the national scene even after we’ve proven we are legit and kicked some major butt (Seahawks in their house, Patsies in Foxboro without a QB, etc).
After twenty years it gets REAL OLD!
Nonetheless, historically the Cards have played up to their tougher competition when the underdog so, if that’s what it takes, I say whatever gets the job done.
Preseason is a little like watching a JV game and sometimes a loss if what the doctor ordered so that things can get adjusted up for the big time and bright lights.
We don’t always agree but when it comes to the media (except for Darren), I pretty much regard them as paid slut mongers. LET’S GO CARDS! TIME TO EARN SOME RESPECT!